Sig Sauer P239: Outdated Concept?
In the modern gun world, the evolution of pistols has reached extremes incredibly fast. Todays' generation of shooters have judged pistols like the Sig P239 to be outdated. Merit, history, and capabilities seem to have been pushed aside in favor of capacity and size, as well as weight. It is a generation of extremes that I was a part of for years. Only through experience did I have a realization that perhaps I should question the validity of these views.
First thing I want to address is the modern standards for pistols like the P239. Today, people expect pistols with an 8+1 capacity to be slim, lightweight, and striker fired. Also, people are falling more and more out of favor with single stack pistols in general accept in extreme cases like deep concealment. I can understand wanting more capacity if considering a firearm that is the same relative size and weight as the single stack options. Why not have the capability to deliver more shots to the target, right? Pistols that are the size of the P239 are typically relegated to the role of open carry and duty purposes. And in that situation, people feel it reasonable to want more capacity if they are going to be able to open carry. If you are already in the open, why not just use it to your advantage and maximize your capabilities with the full shebang. Get a full sized pistol with mag extensions, a weapon light and a red dot sight. These are the standards for pistols in today's age of firearm owners. But experience has taught me that these expectations are often low on the logical standards.
Let us consider a few things that are more important than a capacity argument. First thing to think about is that many people are comfortable with carrying 7 or 8 round pistols. Yet when they think of larger pistols, they immediately come up with this idea that bigger guns automatically means a bigger capacity. This is not even possible in capacity-restricted states, but people still get pistols that are huge and only hold half of the possible rounds. Why might this be? Perhaps it is because they like the shooting characteristics and they work well with it. After all, isn't that the overall important thing? 7 or 8 rounds is a good capacity for most any firearm for concealed carry, and I don't know of too many instances where more than 8 rounds was truly necessary to stop an attack. Sure, you may wanna reference an occasion where there were dozens of rounds fired, but on further investigation, you will find that the fight was over after only a few well placed shots.
The overall point of this article is that I ultimately feel that pistols like the Sig P239 are still very valid pistols, despite the fact that it has nearly half the capacity of it's double stack counterparts. The amount of rounds needed for most engagements are less than people think. Everyone can make their own decisions about what kind of pistol they use, but I think you are missing out greatly on a pistol that is easy to shoot well and a pistol that is a very good candidate as a concealed carry pistol.